Iran Continues to Cut its Oil Exports to European Countries

Iran used to count Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Italy and Portugal amongst its European customers. However when the EU and US sanctions were announced back in January, Tehran said it would enact its own sanctions immediately, before European countries lined up alternative suppliers.

Britain and France were the first to feel Iran’s riposte earlier in the year when all Iranian imports to the two countries were halted.

On Tuesday Ahmadinejad announced that they had cut off all oil sales to Greece and Spain as part of their pre-emptive retaliation.

Today Germany has been added to the list, and now the Persian State has contacted Italy’s refineries to demand long term contracts or face a similar fate to its European brethren.

Press TV, an English language network based in Tehran, has said that apart from the European countries, Iran also has plans to ban exports to 100 European companies.

The whole situation has arisen due to Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which the West fear is intended for fuelling nuclear weapons, although Iran continues to promise that their plans are purely peaceful. Talks between Iran and the UN Security Council, plus Germany, are set to resume on Saturday in an attempt to settle the argument over the nuclear program.

I doubt Iran and west settle the argument this easy. The friction between Iran & west is fundamental. The issue is not enriching uranium. Iran is trying to reach hi-thech industries while west disagree with this.